1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a method for the energy-saving control of at least one process in a food processing apparatus comprising a processing chamber, at least one processing device, and a control or regulating device, and to a cooking apparatus for carrying out such a method.
2. Description of the Related Art
A cooking method is described in EP 07 009 155 for a rolling feed of a cooking apparatus with food items, wherein energy optimization is achieved in that a user is shown which food item or foodstuff is to be loaded into which processing level of a cooking chamber, or to be removed from the cooking chamber.
DE 41 15 489 A1 discloses a further method of this type in which a device ends a cooking procedure when an adjustable end value, such as a baking period or end core temperature, is reached, and a device for switching off heating energy before the set end value is reached. Here, it is known that after an energy saving button has been activated, a time point for switching off heating energy which lies before the point at which the end value which is set using a timer is reached, is calculated by a control circuit, for which purpose the control circuit obtains signals from a temperature sensor skewer and the time switch, in order to activate a heating element accordingly.
A method for operating an electric heating apparatus with which at least one container is to have its state brought to an end value by heating is known from DE 198 13 550 A1, wherein the end value is entered into the electric heating apparatus. Power release to a heating device essentially depends on sensor data which are determined by means of at least one sensor which is assigned to the container, and the power release is controlled on the basis of preset data and the end value according to a specified control procedure until the sensor data lie in a specified range, and subsequently, the power release is controlled on the basis of the sensor data.
DE 34 47 296 C1 discloses a device for controlling a cooking process in a pressure steam cooker which is heated using an electric heating element. By determining values of the temperature-time characteristic curve in a heating phase, the inertia of the system is used by switching off the heating element prematurely in order to keep to the desired cooking time in the pressure steam cooker in an energy-saving way.
DE 10 2005 046 716 A1 discloses a method for closed or open-loop control of a cooking apparatus in which the position of an item of food to be cooked in a cooking device is recorded and a cooking process in the cooking device at the location of the item of food to be cooked can be controlled in an energy-saving manner, and in such a manner that the cooking result is optimised. On completion of such a cooking method, a cleaning method can take place in which the regions in which the item of food to be cooked and any substances which may have been emitted from the food were located are cleaned in a targeted manner, which in turn leads to a saving in energy.
A core temperature-controlled cooking device is known from DE 199 45 021 A1 in which the energy consumption can be determined and a device for supplying energy can be set in dependence on measurement values. In this known method, the core temperature of an item of food to be cooked is controlled as well as possible to a pre-determined target value. If the method is subdivided into several time intervals, as described in DE 197 18 399 A1, in order to, for example, achieve not only a set core temperature, but also a set degree of browning, at the end of the method, then, at a change between time intervals, i.e. at the end of a first time interval, heating can continue, or steam can continue to be produced, for example, even though in the subsequent, second time interval, a lower temperature or a lower degree of humidity is required than in the first time interval. This serves primarily to accelerate the process, but in fact is also an unnecessary use of energy.